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Session 5 (7th - 22nd August 2000)
Lt. Paszkiewicz had provided Meathook with clean bandages and water, and the rest of the day in the cell is spent resting and healing. The plan is to get a key from Vassiliy when he returns, and then use it to get to the courtyard where he'll be waiting with the chopper. It is hard to judge the passage of time in the cell, but Lt. Paszkiewicz arrives for another briefing at what he says to be 13:00 the next day. Still no sign of Vassiliy, so it's not time to jump him, yet. They guys play it cagey, wishing to keep the gears in motion for Paszkiewicz to continue having interviews with them. Paszkiewicz explains that the Rada have agreed to exile them in exchange for naming the man behind Dowodka's murder. The trial is to be public, in the square in the old city. Dogmeat keeps up the pretense by asking for flak jackets to be provided in case anyone in the crowd gets too eager. The trial is set for the next day at noon. Before that, thankfully, Vassiliy returns. He passes down a pack of cigarettes that contains the key to the main courtyard where the flying carpet is stationed, and some wire and things that could serve as lock picks for Mac, just in case. Vassiliy explains that he has his friend in the courtyard performing one of the dry-runs - spinning the blades and engine checking - that occur to show off the 'flying carpet'. Vassiliy departs, urging the guys to be quick. The guys had thought to have enough time to just wait for the next time Paszkiewicz showed up, but Vassiliy and Andre Valishek - the pilot - can't wait up above indefinitely. The guys start hollering. Eventually, a guard fetches Paszkiewicz. It is explained that the party have changed their minds about cutting a deal, and want other options. Paszkiewicz dutifully orders the ladder to be lowered, and the men led to the room. As the two guards turn to take flanking positions by the door and Paszkiewicz turns to take a seat behind the table, they are jumped. Meathook thunders into his man and applies an enormous bear hug, crushing him into unconsciousness. Mac holds his man immobile with with a soup ladle shank to his throat, and Dogmeat successfully grapples and pins Paszkiewicz. Mac's man is rendered unconscious by Meathook, and after realising there is nothing in particular that is needed to be asked of him, Paszkiewicz is too. The soldiers don the Warta uniforms as best they can. On Meathook's frame he looks like he's wearing an old school blazer and Dogmeat isn't going to pass for a local. Dogmeat and Meathook each take an AKM from the guards. Mac takes Paszkiewicz's Makarov 9mm pistol. Meathook peeks out in to the corridor. He is spotted. The guard shoulders his rifle and Meathook charges, hoping to barrel into him before he manages to fire. The plan is not to kill or shoot anyone - as clearing their names and retrieving the HMMWVs and gear will be a lot more difficult if there are people killed during the escape. The guard gets a burst of fire off before Meathook reaches him and Meathook takes a round in the leg. He falls, and soon loses consciousness. Mac and Dogmeat take cover in the doorway and return fire. In a couple of seconds, it is over. Dogmeat shoots low and misses. The guard shoots Mac in the face, smashing jaw and teeth. The guard begins to back away, and Dogmeat sprays and drops him. More important at the moment than checking Meathook and Mac are the guards that are probably coming from the guardroom Vassiliy mentioned. Dogmeat gets to the corner first, and cuts the two down before they can fire. Dogmeat quickly dons a flak jacket and helmet from the armoury, and scouts for anyone who might have heard the gunfire. The area is small, and clear. Two intersecting corridors with locked doors at the ends, a guardroom, and a spiral staircase leading up to the courtyard. Meathook has regained consciousness by the time Dogmeat has finished looking around. Meathook tends to himself with the medical kit from the armoury that Dogmeat had dropped beside him. He bandages his leg, and shoots up on Morphine. Taking a look at Mac, all he can do for the present is bandage his head. Mac is falling in and out of consciousness, but made of stern stuff, and trying to stay with it. None of the Warta guards are dead, and they are dragged off and tied up as necessary. The guys equip themselves with AKMs, grenades and flak jackets. Dogmeat creeps up the stairs to the courtyard and checks out the situation. The stairs lead to a small open guard room in one corner of the courtyard. Approximately opposite is the flying carpet, rotors turning slowly with Vassiliy sitting inside, swinging his legs. Four Warta guards patrol the courtyard. Two are walking around near the flying carpet, two more are talking at a sandbag and machine gun emplacement nearer the guard room. Dogmeat figures he could maybe take down the two guys at the sandbags with his AKM while the others stumble to the chopper, but this is no sure thing, and doesn't account for the other two guards near the chopper. Dogmeat waves Vassiliy over from the chopper, who wanders over to the guard room. Vassiliy had hoped to stay out of the thick of things as much as possible.. he was eager to help the Americans find out what plotting was going on in 'his' city.. but is persuaded to get in a little deeper. It is decided that Vassiliy should signal to Valishek to start to ready the chopper for proper takeoff. Thus distracted, Meathook and Dogmeat will go deal with the guards at the sandbags so they can't gun down the flying carpet, and Vassiliy will begin to haul Mac across the courtyard. Guards distracted by the increasing noise and wind from the chopper, Dogmeat and Meathook make it over to the sandbags, and Vassiliy and Mac to the centre of the courtyard. Dogmeat vaults over the sandbags, but fails to surprise his man. Meathook bears his opponent to the ground, but fails to render him unconscious. Dogmeat's opponent gets the better of him, and soon has him pinned. Vassiliy sees the fight taking too long, and bolts for the chopper without Mac. Dogmeat is smashed in the face with the butt of a rifle a couple of times, and drops. Vassiliy sprays with the big PK mounted on the side of the chopper, but just hits air. Meathook manages to bring things under control at the sandbags. He drops his own opponent with the butt of his rifle, and spins in time to shoot the guard who was fighting Dogmeat before the same guard manages to shoot him. Mac summons up the energy to haul himself into the chopper on his own, and straps himself in at the PK on the opposite side. He fires a couple of bursts at the other two Warta guards. Andre jinks the helicopter at ground level over to Meathook, who hauls himself and Dogmeat aboard. Valishek takes off, flying low over the walls of the Wawel, and out across the city. He keeps as low as possible to avoid ack-ack from the Wawel or the Kopiec Kosciuszki where the ORMO are stationed, but there is no incoming. The plan was never to add insult to the city of Krakow by stealing the flying carpet, and Andre lands in a park. Vassiliy has a car waiting. The carpet is kitted out as an escape vehicle for three. Presumably Dowodka, his departed mistress Marian and pilot. The guys load tent, supplies, some ammo, maps and flares, doctor's kit, Geiger counter, MREs and the two PK machine guns into Vassiliy's car. Next stop - Slomniki, and then on to find Dogmeat's brother and the Polish partisans. By 22:00 that evening, the group have arrived at the woods and caves used by the partisans. Marcus greets Dogmeat and the group tell their story before the pain of their injuries and the Morphine to stop it send them to sleep. Combined with information from Marcus, Vassiliy, Adam and Marian, there is a lot to digest. The first concern that comes to light are the technical papers that still lie in the Wawel. When the guys describe them, Vassiliy figures he could have a go at understanding them. Paszkiewicz never questioned the group about the papers.. so it is figured that they haven't been noticed yet.. and that one of the partisans - using the gold Mac hid at Stadion Korona - might be able to bribe a Wawel guard who is there to guard vehicles and weapons, and not papers. Marcus says he'll get that underway. He also figures he'll need to contact Donovan - the CIA man working in the city - and find out how the situation stands. The reason the flying carpet never came under fire during its escape was that the ORMO were occupied with the near rioting and civil unrest brewing in the city. The most interesting thing to come to light is provided by Marian, the deceased Dowodka's former mistress. The guys are worried about maybe a KGB spy finding the papers in the Wawel, and they ask Adam to ask Marian who the KGB agent she was being forced to spy on Dowodka for was. The answer.. one Prucznic Aleksander Paszkiewicz. Also, it seems that he is second in charge of the Warta. The players seem to be Paszkiewicz - the KGB agent in the Warta, Bohusz-Szyszko - Police Prefect of Krakow, head of the ORMO and first in line for control of the city, and Major Kobiaki - staff advisor to Bohusz-Szyszko. It is figured that some sort of move is going to be made against Bohusz-Szyszko. Paszkiewicz was setting him up for a fall, it seems, but it is unknown whether they were working together previously. It seems most likely that Paszkiewicz and Kobiaki worked together to kill Dowodka and oust Bohusz-Szyszko. It seems likely that Kobiaki expected to gain control of the ORMO, and with Dowodka gone, the city. It may have been that Paszkiewicz also sought to come out on top, but it seems possible that he was only acting to destabilise Krakow for the KGB, making it a softer target for Warsaw Pact forces to take. After a week Meathook is well enough to walk around on his leg, but the others are still bedridden with their head injuries. Word has come back from Donovan. There is no information on a move on Bohusz-Szyszko. Martial law has been declared in the city. The sentiment in the city is now strongly anti-American. The film and some gold has been collected from the stadium, but there has been no development on getting the papers. However - the man who collected the film took it to Hammer and company in the city, who are still hiding out. Doc Calcium wasn't able to develop it, but was able to treat it so it can be unwound and viewed as negatives. Good enough. Vassiliy can only read so much projecting the negatives onto a cave wall with a torch. It is complicated and modular. Maybe something like radar or electronics. Another week passes and Dogmeat is back on his feet. Mac will be in a bad way for another month or more. Also, the bribing of the guard in the Wawel has been successful, and the foot lockers full of technical papers have arrived. Vassiliy studies them, and announces it is a computer. It doesn't sound very interesting - everything is fried, and there's no infrastructure for computers. Vassiliy explains that it is design for a computer that can make old broken computers work again, by sharing the chips, or the broken parts. One side or the other in the war having access to properly working computers would really make a difference. It seems likely that the group will want to get this to Donovan to get it back to the US of A. Nominally the guys would be aligned with the DIA and the military government back home, but with no contact, sending it back to the CIA and the civilian government will have to do. Mac protests that British intelligence would be interested too, but there's no sign of secret agents in tuxedos to give it to either. In news from radio traffic, it seems that things have been progressing in the war too. Both sides have been taking heavy losses, and are really smashing each other to pieces. There's no real 'front', just fighting. It seems that desertions are on the rise too. There are numbers of reports of units refusing orders to move because their crops have just been planted, and unit commanders responding with 'Come make me.' when given orders. More and more, things are falling to pieces. Dogmeat asks Marcus if he's even heard of a Sgt. Cutter - the traitor who killed his unit to get the prototype Operation: Reset computer. It is figured that he might have found out by now from whoever he was selling it to that the prototype is no good, and the plans are what is needed. It seems that Marcus has heard of a man named Cutler being in charge of a band of marauders and puts out some feelers, but learns nothing. The guys figure he's got to be trying to find those plans, and figure they can give him his payback for the green berets he killed when he finds them. The talk of American soldiers bring Marcus on to a story about a dead American sergeant that one of the partisans found. He doesn't have it with him, but it seems that the man's diary contains mention of the location of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. If this man found the Black Madonna, and it can be recovered.. Marcus explains that it is an important Polish religious Icon, and that the guys could really use it as a bargaining chip in clearing their name in Krakow, or even just buying it clear. Marcus says he'll have the diary brought, and Dogmeat and Meathook consider the possibly of a little art shopping while Mac heals up. Source *Original Source Category:The Road to God Knows Where Campaign